New Delhi, April 3 (IANS): Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari Wednesday said he was disturbed by the death of a 22-year-old student activist in West Bengal.

"As a (former) student activist, I have been at the receiving end of the tender mercies of police lathis during my career. I feel extremely disturbed at this young boy's (Sudipta Gupta's) death," Tewari said here.

"This is not about politics. There are people in the West Bengal government who were our colleagues in Chattra Parishad and Youth Congress, who have similarly been at the receiving end of police atrocities.

"There is a need to rise above parties and politics and ensure that justice is done in this matter," Tewari told a news channel.

"There has to be a protocol on how police deals with peaceful protest."

Gupta, a student at Rabindra Bharati University and an activist of the Students Federation of India (SFI), Tuesday died in Kolkata of a head injury after being detained by police during a protest.

While police said they were not to blame for the death, his friends said police had beaten him.

The incident took place when hundreds of SFI activists hit the streets to protest against a government decision to stall student union elections in all educational institutions for six months.